Today is the 13th of January. We propose text called: “The Disclosure of the Third Secret” (part V).

5. Structure of the Whole Secret

The fifth way in which we can gain insight into the contents of the Third Secret is by analysing the structure of the Secret’s first two parts.

a) A logical structure

Fr. Messias Dias Coelho, one of the best and renowned experts of Fatima writes: “This third part of the Secret certainly constitutes a precious part of the whole message of Fatima … If the message is a whole, the third part must be harmoniously inserted into it. … The third part of the Secret must be in line with the whole, constituted by the messages of the angel, those of Our Lady at the Cova da Iria, and then those of Pontevedra and Tuy”. “We should remember in interpreting Lucia’s writings that she never repeats herself in the same text, especially when she is dealing with related things. If therefore the first part of the Secret speaks of the vision of Hell and the intercessory function of Our Lady to save sinners who would otherwise go there, and if the second part deals with the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, emphasizing particularly the disastrous effects failure to do so will bring to the world and the Church in their external, political and material aspects, then we can be certain that none of this will again be included in the third part” (Fr. Alonso).

b) The Holy Father

In the revealed part of the Secret, the Holy Father is mentioned several times. The very structure of the Secret, where the promises and announcement of chastisements are repeated twice in a row, clearly underlines the supreme responsibility of the Holy Father, on whom everything depends in the final analysis. Indeed, the requests of Our Lady addressed to the Holy Father are at the centre of the text, like a key phrase: “he has the obligation to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart and to establish the First Saturday devotion in the Church. If these requests are not fulfilled, the Holy Father will have much to suffer.” In Tuy, Our Lady is even more explicit: “the moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make … the consecration of Russia”. The fulfilment of the promises of Fatima depends entirely on the goodwill of the Pope, who, by his apostolic authority, must accept and promote the admirable design of mercy proposed by Heaven. It cannot be denied that, in the Message of Fatima, the responsibility of the Pope is immense, with two possible outcomes: either wonderful results for the good by the fulfilment of Our Lady’s requests, or terrible and disastrous results by ignoring or even opposing them. The Immaculate Heart desires to pour forth into the world torrents of graces, but it is the job of the Pope to start the process by opening the gates!

Finally, the promise of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart is also linked to the Pope, who will eventually consecrate Russia to her. Therefore, the salvation of the world is in the hands of the Pope, completely depending on his exact and prompt obedience to the desires of the Queen of Heaven. The salvation of many souls or their loss; war or peace; the worldwide expansion of atheistic communism or the conversion of Russia; the exaltation of the Church or an apostasy devouring and consuming the living cells of its body — everything depends first of all on him, and on him alone.

As the Holy Father is named so many times in the disclosed part of the Secret, he must be the primary person responsible for the salvation or chastisement of Christendom. If the third Secret speaks of a terrible crisis of the Faith (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, in her letter, Card. Ratzinger, Bishop do Amaral, Fr. Alonso), how could such an apostasy happen except with the knowledge of the Pope, in direct dependence on his supreme responsibility as Guardian of the Faith? As the Second Secret indicates the overwhelming responsibility of the Pope in the temporal chastisements which fall on Christendom, it is but logical that the Third Secret predicts spiritual chastisements — the crisis in the Church — and also their cause. The prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima contain threats, but those threats are always conditional. She never predicts a chastisement without mentioning the responsibility of those who draw it on themselves: it is sinners who go to hell; and it is the Pope, bishops and faithful who, by turning a deaf ear to her requests, bring on the scourge of Communism. If then apostasy makes its way into the Church, how can the Shepherd not be responsible?

We observe in the Secret a parallel and simultaneous development of two series of chastisements: temporal ones striking the nations and the Church, but from without, and spiritual chastisements from within, by the loss of Faith. It is one and the same act of the Pope finally consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary which will put an end to those dark years of atheistic and materialistic domination in the world and apostasy within the Church.

This makes it fully understandable why Sr. Lucia found it extremely difficult to write down the Third Secret. As a humble religious, she was accustomed to looking on her superiors as the representatives of God. Now, when she found herself suddenly ordered to communicate such severe warnings to them, such sharp reproaches regarding their conduct, she was confronted with an extremely painful mission. This also makes the preoccupation of Jacinta with praying constantly and sacrificing herself for the Holy Father fully comprehensible. The Third Secret must explicitly mention defects of the Popes and the persecutions they will have to undergo later on.

c) Calamities, Remedies and Consequences

In each part of the revealed Secrets, we discover three aspects: Firstly, Our Lady warns of the calamities that would come from a refusal to heed Heaven’s requests. Secondly, she proposes the remedies necessary to prevent or overcome these catastrophes. Thirdly, Our Lady presents the consequences: happy consequences if her requests are heeded, terrible consequences if her requests are refused.

The negative consequences or third aspect of the First Secret introduce the calamities or first aspect of the Second Secret. It would be logical, then, for the terrible consequences or third aspect of the Second Secret to introduce the calamities or first aspect of the Third Secret.

Because the final words of the entire Secret promise the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the fulfilment of her requests, the negative consequences or third aspect of the Third Secret are a preface to the final triumphal conclusion.

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